Constellations Q and A
By Sabrina Oliveri
Milagros Luis is an Argentina-born, New York City-based artist who recently made her off-off-Broadway directorial debut at Caveat with Constellations by Nick Payne. The show is about the relationship between a physicist, Marianne, and a beekeeper, Roland. The same scenes repeat throughout the show, but with different outcomes each time, creating a constellation of stories and endings. Luis talks in-depth about her background and artistic process.
S: How did you begin your journey with theater? Walk me through how you got to this point.
M: When I was in Argentina, I started acting at the age of seven. I was dancing at the age of three because I was too energetic as a kid, and my mom was like, “We need to send this kid somewhere.” My mom is a speech therapist for kids with special needs, and she does a lot of work with the kids through games, trying to get them to speak without having the pressure of talking, and she discovered theater. She thought, “Oh my God, I should send my kid to the theater, because she wants to be Madonna.” I would travel every day to go to theater classes and dance classes downtown, but I live in the suburbs. And that was the beginning.
S: How did your college experience at Fordham influence the artist you are today, or at least the working artist you are right now?
M: I mean, it was everything, because it showed me the show business. In Argentina, I don't think you can make a living, but it's something that people dedicate their lives to. It comes from the need for more expression. And here I was like, Oh, this is the business I need to be. I need to be the box they want me to be. I cannot wait here with my talent, expecting somebody to see me in order to do what I'm really good at. I started to direct because I choreographed in Argentina, and that was kind of my entry point. Since then, I've been doing the most. I can give somebody an opportunity. I can give a script an opportunity. I can create more opportunities because I can get designers, stage managers, etc. I can get a room full of people who might not have met each other before this, and now they're all working together. That was fascinating to me.
S: Everyone has their own journey, and you just debuted Off-Off-Broadway with Constellations. Talk a little bit about the experience from inception to that first performance.
M: I wanted a 90-minute play because I have three weeks to rehearse tech and put up the show, which is not a lot. So it needed to be something that I could do with a small cast. I was asking people for plays, and Fabiola— another Fordham alumnus and producer of Constellations — sent me a bunch, and I really liked Constellations. At the time, I was in love with a guy who was a Libra, and all my exes also happen to be Libras. And I'm a Libra too! So I was like, “Oh my God, there's like, Destiny and the stars. I'm connected to it.” But the moment I put the show up, I was sick of this boy. I didn't know how to stage a love story if I thought love was nonexistent in the world. But when I read it, I felt immersed in this ball of continuity and connection and constellation. I thought, “I want to do justice to this play.”
S: As someone who just graduated from college, what advice do you have for young artists post-grad who are kind of trying to find their way?
M: Start doing stuff. School will guide you. I got funding from [Fordham] to do my show. So getting to do something is important; it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be practice. Think of the first year after school as a master's. Getting experience doing something doesn't have to be great. It's just like an assignment. Is every assignment you did for theology good? They probably sucked. Well, think the same way. They don't have to be the greatest thing I've ever done, but at least it gives you the practice of fundraising. Mix yourself with different people from different schools, and you get more connections. Talk to everybody: people from different schools, the cast. And then when you start having connections, they start to like you and vibe with you, then you have more projects. And in those projects that get bigger over time, you'll be able to apply the skills that you learn with your little silly devised project with your friends.
